While the All-American accolades keep coming in for star running back Dom Bragalone, the Lehigh football program hopes it added prominent playmakers of the future on Wednesday.

As part of NCAA’s new early signing period, the Mountain Hawks announced the addition of 12 players to the program.

The new members of Class of 2022 include four offensive linemen, two defensive linemen, but also skill-position talent that will help to make up for the loss of star receivers Troy Pelletier and Gatlin Casey and the upcoming exits of Bragalone and backup running back Micco Brisker and quarterback Brad Mayes, among others, after the 2018 season.

“Our staff did a great job of finding the right people we needed to come into our program,” head coach Andy Coen said. “This class will have guys from the Carolinas, from Florida, from Michigan … really 12 guys from a lot of different areas. But we picked up the right kind of guys.”

Among the incoming players is Raymond Falcone of newly crowned PIAA 6A state champion Pine-Richland. The all-state selection had 56 catches for 1,039 yards and 11 touchdowns and 122 grabs for 2,464 yards and 25 scores over the past two seasons.

Rashawn Allen of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep in Canton, Mich,, led his program to three straight state championships and broke the school rushing record with 2,121 yards in 2016.

Alec Beesmer may be the team’s quarterback of the future. The son of former Lehigh football player Ken Beesmer (Class of 1992), Beesmer was second in Milton Academy (Mass.) history with 3,248 yards passing and 29 TDs.

“We have to replenish some of the great players that we’ve had,” Coen said. “We did that and we have some good offensive and defensive linemen.”

Of course, the defense has been a source of concern at Lehigh in recent years and despite winning the Patriot League title this fall, the Mountain Hawks were 5-7 due in large part to a defense that allowed 41.0 points and 477.7 yards per game, including 242.3 on the ground.

To help improve the defense, Lehigh signed Chase Foley, a conference defensive MVP and the defensive player of the year in a state championship game at Charlotte Catholic.

“Chase was an outstanding player coming from an outstanding program, plus he’s a mult-sport athlete and I really like that,” Coen said.

Coen said Lehigh is still looking to bring in more players, including some that will sign in February and others that will be walk-ons.

Each recruiting class is important because players are getting on the field earlier than ever. Lehigh had several freshmen, particularly in the defensive secondary, who had to play significant minutes last year.

“The kids we’re bringing in are bigger, stronger and faster than in years past perhaps,” Coen said. “Everything is happening faster. Instead of signing in February, we’re signing in December. We had a lot of guys committed early throughout the fall, so that made it good.

“You only have so much money to give out with our scholarships, and then you have to work hard, if not harder, to find good, solid players who are passionate about playing football at Lehigh and want to be here as student-athletes and they’re willing to do it while paying a lot of money for it. Those guys will be announced further down the road.”

Lehigh’s season opener has changed. It is now set for Sept. 1 at Goodman Stadium against St. Francis.

The Navy game, which was previously scheduled to be the opener, has been moved back to Sept. 15, still at Annapolis, Md.